Re: Lac(k) of support

If you cannot bear to toss the formula, freeze the formula in a block of ice. hey, works for credit cards, right?

Or donate it to a food pantry or women's shelter. Formula is one thing they never have enough of.

A young baby is growing at an INCREDIBLE rate, which takes an incredible amount of energy. So, it is all going somewhere-into that growth.

If you happen to have any pregnancy weight you want to shed, this should inspire you! The more you nurse, the faster the pounds melt away. I really enjoyed turning my postpartum love handles into baby chub.

Re: Lac(k) of support

Originally Posted by @llli*mommal

If you happen to have any pregnancy weight you want to shed, this should inspire you! The more you nurse, the faster the pounds melt away. I really enjoyed turning my postpartum love handles into baby chub.

Yup! Whenever anyone comments on how I've bounced back to my pre-pregnancy figure, I tell them it's the breastfeeding weight loss plan!

Re: Lac(k) of support

Thank you again ladies, this morning when GREAT! He was on the breast for about an hour total for each feeding. I've done 7 feedings since 430 this morning however three of them were expressed breast milk..This afternoon/ early evening was a night mare...When I'd try to stick him on the breast he'd scream bloody murder (which was when he had the bottles) when i'd try to put him on the breast it seemed like I was torturing him :-(

He is however starting to favor the left breast and doesn't really want to feed on the right during the day. Around bed time he'll feed off of both breasts and same with first thing in the morning.

Re: Lac(k) of support

Awesome! A great morning implies great full days ahead! Babies are often most fussy and most resistant to nursing in the afternoon/evening, when they and mom are getting tired and have less patience to make nursing work. Just continue to calmly and consistently offer the breast. And if you both get too frustrated and resort to the bottle, try giving baby an oz or so of milk and then trying the breast again, once he's a little calmer and no longer in that I-am-starving freak out mode. 2 other things that can help are the instant reward technique and the finger pacifier. If baby is getting frantic as he tries to latch, try offering your finger to suck, with the nail held down towards the baby's tongue instead of up towards the delicate skin of the palate. A few seconds of sucking on a finger can be enough to calm baby down and remind him that the answer to his problems is sucking, not screaming and panicking. With the instant reward technique, you express a few drops of milk onto the nipple before attempting to latch baby on. The taste of milk can remind baby that his meal is in the breast, and all he has to do is nurse if he wants it.

Re: Lac(k) of support

Glad to hear you are having some success! Here is something off of KellyMom that might make you feel better!!

"One frequently-heard explanation for baby’s fussiness in the evenings is that milk volume tends to be lower in the evening due to the natural cycling of hormones throughout the day. However, Dr. Peter Hartmann, a breastfeeding researcher, has said that in the women he has studied, milk volume is not low at this time of day. Even if milk volume is lower in the evening, fat content is typically higher in the evening (particularly if baby is allowed to control this via cue feeding), so the amount of calories that baby is getting should not be significantly different. Milk flow can be slower in the evening, which may be frustrating for some babies."

This was a problem for me too, and even sometimes now! Last night DD did NOT want to eat, so I had to take her upstairs into her dark room with the noise maker going and just keep switching and switching and switching until she calmed down and stayed on long enough to trigger a letdown of milk. Evenings are a hard time for most babies, but it sounds like you are doing the right thing by keep trying!!

PS Hooray for getting rid of the formula!! I'm sure your mom has good intentions, but it's good to have it out of sight. To be honest with you, I carry formula and a bottle with me all the time, and have some in the house for EMERGENCIES! Heaven forbid I get into an accident - I have ZERO frozen BM so she would need to eat something And my DD likes the left side better too, I'm lopsided!

Re: Lac(k) of support

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, things have been hectic....

Things were going great, I had my son strictly on the breast for about a week and then all of a sudden he wanted nothing to do with the breast except for first thing in the morning..My husband and I actually had a big blowout because of it. I was trying to get my son to latch on being calm and everything while my son was hysterical and my husband brought a bottle of formula over to quiet him.

Every morning I've been engorged except for this morning. My son fed for a little bit but was too distracted since his father was around. I'm going to try again in a little bit to see if my son will latch back on. Yesterday I had three successful latches and when I tried for a fourth it was back to as if my son latching on was the worst thing ever...

Re: Lac(k) of support

You know, this is either something you commit to as a mother or you lose it. You really can't have it both ways when your child is this young. It's ALL supply and demand. Everytime you let your child have formula you are damaging your supply. Two fold At least. Because your body missed the opportunity to make that feed and then it misses it's next que because formula is harder on their system and takes longer to digest. So as long as you remain ambivilent about this you are putting both you and your child at risk. You are risking your supply. Seriously. Everytime. And with that and the lack of your milk comes all the health risks to your child associated with formula. You already KNOW you can make enough milk. You were doing it. But you have to be willing to get up and do the work everyday. Obviously if you feed your baby bottles you always run the risk of nipple preference. So crying at the breast so he can get food an easier way makes sense. But the only way around that is to ELIMININATE the bottles. If the baby knows that the only way to eat IS the breast, they do the work.

Re: Lac(k) of support

It sounds like DH is still not helping things either. You have to drill into his head that formula is NOT THE SOLUTION. And just throw the formula away so it's not even an option. If baby has come to equate DH with formula and therefore is fussing when DH is around, get DH out of the room when you're nursing. You can do this - you just proved to yourself that you can!

Re: Lac(k) of support

Originally Posted by @llli*bfwmomof3

It sounds like DH is still not helping things either. You have to drill into his head that formula is NOT THE SOLUTION. And just throw the formula away so it's not even an option. If baby has come to equate DH with formula and therefore is fussing when DH is around, get DH out of the room when you're nursing. You can do this - you just proved to yourself that you can!